Ralph René
Ralph René (August 24, 1933 – December 10, 2008) was an American conspiracy theorist, small press publisher and inventor. René was a vocal proponent of the Apollo moon landing hoax theory. René's death was confirmed via a video on AOL. René's last self-published book, on the September 11 attacks, is called World Trade Center Lies and Fairytales. It details his beliefs that the United States Government was behind the events of those tragedies.
René was a prominent conspiracy theorist and had been featured frequently in shows produced by The History Channel, National Geographic, Fox TV and Showtime that discuss the viability of such a hoax and/or government conspiracies. In one such show,The Truth Behind the Moon Landing, NASA writer James Oberg referred to René and other Moon Landing Hoax proponents as cultural vandals. René reacted onscreen with amusement and stated that he liked the characterization. René was also featured in a Season 3 episode of Penn and Teller's [...]! covering conspiracy theories. René was introduced as a physicist on the 2001 FOX documentary, Did We Land On The Moon?, and had the designation "Author/Scientist" under his picture. However, René admitted in his biography that he did not hold a degree from any university and always referred to himself as "self-taught".
Apollo moon landing
His 1992 self-published book, NASA Mooned America! details why he felt that the Apollo moon landings were faked and actually produced from a closed studio.
Some of his main arguments were that:
- Astronauts could not have survived the radiation that they would have been exposed to while passing through the Van Allen radiation belt.
- That photos taken on the moon do not show stars in the background.
- That video shows wind blowing the U.S. flag on the moon although the moon has no atmosphere.
- That the letter "C" is visible on a rock in a photo which indicates it was a Hollywood prop.
- The gloves on the Apollo space suits would have expanded in the vacuum of space to the point where they would be immobile.
- Who put the camera on the ground in front of the lunar lander to show Neil Armstrong stepping down the ladder for the first step on the moon?
- The shaded side of objects are not dark due to three point lighting in a studio.
Other beliefs
In addition to contending that NASA never sent astronauts to the moon, René also proposes:
- Einstein's Theory of relativity is not valid
- That the Earth has no Equatorial bulge
- That Newton's law of universal gravitation is erroneous
- That Pi is equal to 3.146264
René addressed most of these issues in his self-published book, The Last Skeptic Of Science originally published in 1988. Its original title MENSA Lectures resulted in a lawsuit against him by MENSA who felt he was misappropriating the name of their organization and using it to suggest they backed his beliefs. René then chose to subtitle the book: The Book MENSA Tried To Stop. This portion was added as an appendix detailing the dispute.
Personal life
René referred to himself as an "extra bright kid from the slums". After attending Rutgers University for a time, he dropped out and went to work as a carpenter and millwright. He then continued to pursue his personal interests in structural, mechanical engineering, physics, writing and inventing. René held two patents, for simple mechanical tools. He maintained a Web site that archived many of his past columns and essays on a wide variety of subjects.
See also
- Astronauts Gone Wild
- Bill Kaysing
- Bart Sibrel
- Marcus Allen
- squaring the circle
External links
es:Ralph Rene